Mirorbital station (in orbit from February 1986 to March 2001). The development of the new space object began in 1994 and, for economic reasons, the participant countries’ national technical accomplishments (mostly Russian and American) were used in the project, which enabled reducing financial burden on the project’s leader. Moreover, the European countries (the European Space Agency), Japan, and Canada were also involved in the project. These countries developed the new station’s elements based on their national technical achievements, using their own resources.
However, as often happens with the long-term, complicated technical programs, serious difficulties arose in the course of its implementation that threatened the entire ISS project’s fate. The station was launched in the late 1998, the planned assembly of its elements began, and the first international crew arrived in 2000. However, further assembly was interrupted after the space shuttle Columbia disaster in February 2003. In 2004, the leading Russian space enterprise RSC Energia was on the verge of bankruptcy due to severe economic problems in Russia.
Nevertheless, not only the developers managed to find a solution for overcoming these difficulties but also the prospects for using future orbital stations in the exploration of other planets were outlined. The goal was set to create the cost-effective space transportation systems, which, so far, is one of the main outcomes of the ISS’ longstanding saga. The biggest advancements along this line of work were achieved in the USA as part of the public-private partnership program Commercial Orbital Transportation Service. This paper discusses the history of creation of the ISS, the results of its operations, and the prospects for orbital stations in general.
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